Licorice Pizza is the long-awaited ninth film by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson. As a massive fan of Boogie Nights to Phantom Thread and everything in between, I loved this film, which is his most accessible film and arguably his funniest. My cheeks hurt from laughing so much. When things aren’t the best in the world, these festive films are welcomed.
The film is a coming-of-age story set in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley in 1973 and centers on Gary on a high school student who is also a successful child actor and Alana, a photographer’s assistant.
Licorice Pizza was a chill film with as many severe stakes as most of his work. It’s the most fun I’ve had with a movie of his since Boogie Nights. Speaking of Boogie, similar to that film and Inherent Vice, in 70s California, PTA put together an excellent soundtrack full of classics. The production design and costume department did a great job to make the decade come alive on screen.
Licorice Pizza features two of the best acting debuts of the past few years in Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. Cooper is the son of the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and he is very much his son, playing an awkward character that is similar to the type of roles his father became famous for. I’m glad we have him carry his father’s legacy while making his mark. I’ll say he is more charismatic than his father, having a significant screen presence and great comedic timing. PTA was the perfect director to guide Cooper through his first film, given that he had such a fruitful and successful partnership with Philip.
He has terrific chemistry with Alana, the object of his affection. I loved their back and forth and could have spent another two hours with them. Through her music, I’m familiar with Alana, one of the musician’s better performances. She is one of the best female characters PTA has ever created, and I loved how she nailed this trait her character has of repeating things.
The film has a great supporting cast of big names who have small parts but do a lot. If you’re expecting Bradley Cooper to be in the movie a lot, you’re mistaken. His role is minimal. He doesn’t appear until 90 minutes in, but he makes the most of his short screen time. He is playing an egoistic film producer Jon Peters, who I’ve seen in interviews, and he nailed him. You can tell he had a great time filming this because the role was very out there. If he had maybe 5-10 more minutes of screen time, I would have said he should get his Oscar speech ready. This is the kind of showy supporting role that wins awards.
I love Sean Penn despite his controversial comments, and this is probably his best role since winning his second Oscar for Milk back in 2008. He is perfect as legendary actor William Holden. Tom Waits was perfectly cast as an eccentric director, and his scenes opposite Penn provided the film with some of the funniest moments.
PTA has a great shot at winning his first Oscar as the Academy loves films about themselves. All the references to movies and the industry, in general, is material that they’ll eat up the same way I did. PTA made the excellent choice of filming this on 70MM, and I loved it because it feels and looks like a film from that era and not one made today. He is known for his long movies, and you sometimes feel the length, but I loved the pacing on this one because the 133-minute run time was a breeze.
The only complaint I have is that I loved Cooper and Alana so much together that I wouldn’t say I liked how the 3rd act kept them from each other for long periods. But, overall, Licorice Pizza is yet another excellent love letter to L.A. from PTA that won’t disappoint his die-hards.
